Keith Collins

Executive Vice President & Chief Information Officer, SAS

Keith Collins directed Research and Development at SAS for most of his career, including 13 years as Chief Technology Officer. His latest charter is to redefine the role of IT from tactical to strategic, and to accelerate SAS in cloud computing. In this role, he is re-envisioning IT to support global operations across all business functions to be consistent, efficient and transparent.

In anInformationWeek commentary, Collins said, “Big computing at small prices allows companies to look at, and deal with, data in ways not possible before. It's this computational capacity that has the real potential to transform data from a compliance burden into a business asset." He added, “Leaders in each industry are beginning to find real value in unlocking the potential in the data they already have. The insatiable desire to visualize data, recognize patterns and turn data into dollars is being supercharged by high-performance computing.”

Collins has a computer science degree from North Carolina State University and is a founding member of the computer science department’s strategic advisory board. In 2003, the university named him a Distinguished Engineering Alumnus. He also serves as an advisor for Bull City Venture Partners and is a patron of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.